Press Release on ICANN-DoC-NSI Tentative Agreements

ICANN, U.S. Department of Commerce,
and Network Solutions, Inc., Announce
Tentative Agreements on Future of Domain Name System

(Marina del Rey, CA) -- The Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced
today that it had tentatively reached a set of agreements with
the U.S. Department of Commerce and Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI),
to resolve outstanding differences among the three parties.

The agreements have been posted
for a thirty-day public comment period on the ICANN website at
http://www.icann.org/agreements.htm and will come before the Board for final
consideration at its November meeting.

"The ICANN Board is pleased
that the lengthy negotiations over these issues have produced
a workable structure based on compromises by all sides,"
said Esther Dyson, Interim Chairman of the ICANN Initial Board.
"Our next step is to consider the input of the engineers,
businesses, academics, individual users and other interested
parties that make up the worldwide Internet. We look forward
to welcoming Network Solutions as an ICANN accredited registrar
and to working with them and the community to develop consensus
policies regarding the management of the Domain Name System."

The agreements consist of: (1)
a Registry Agreement between ICANN and NSI; (2) a revised Registrar
Accreditation Agreement between ICANN and all registrars in .com,
.net, and .org; (3) a revised post-testbed Registrar-License
and Agreement between NSI as registry and registrars; (4) an
amendment to the Cooperative Agreement between the Department
of Commerce and NSI; and (5) an amendment to the Memorandum of
Understanding between the Department of Commerce and NSI.

Among the key provisions set
forth in the agreements:

NSI will recognize ICANN and
agree to operate the .com, .org and .net registries in accordance
with the Registry Agreement between ICANN and NSI and future
consensus policies adopted by ICANN.

NSI agrees to become an ICANN
accredited registrar for the .com, .org, and .net domains. The
ICANN accreditation agreement has been revised to include improvements
suggested by registrars during the testbed phase.

NSI has agreed to participate
in the funding of ICANN through registry and registrar fees,
provided that they are equitably apportioned.

All accredited registrars (including
NSI) will be required to provide continued public access to "WHOIS"
data.

The InterNIC website will be
maintained as a public information site with a directory of links
to accredited registrars.

"Todays agreements
signal the end of the months of uncertainty which have limited
ICANNs ability to address its responsibilities," said
Mike Roberts, ICANNs Interim President & CEO. "Subject
to the comments of the global Internet community, the staff and
I look forward to working with the Board and the community to
implement these agreements."

About ICANN

The Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the non-profit corporation
that was formed to assume responsibility for the IP address space
allocation, protocol parameter assignment, and domain name system
management functions now performed under U.S. Government contract
by IANA and other entities.

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